OR gS Ee’ OSI EE ShBEn We Mea Rage aie eg ee 
130 McLean: Avifauna of Staithes and Loftus-in-Cleveland. 
about a thousand feet above sea level, with its Grouse, Wild | 
_ Duck, Snipe, Curlew, and many other moorland birds. Surely, | 
for the ornithologist a richer or more varied field could scarcely 
be found in so small a compass. 
There are, however, some drawbacks from an ornithologist’s 
point of view. There is a want of marshy ground and of mud 
banks. There are certainly some pieces of ground with growths 
this coast a resting-place, a sort of wayside inn, as they pass 
backwards and forwards during their migrations. 4 
nother cause of discomfort to the birds, especially the 
migrants, has sprung up during the last thirty years in some _ 
parts of the district. end 
Skinningrove was once a pretty little quiet village nestling ; 
between the hills. It has now become a town. e banks to 
the west were once covered with a thick pine wood, and bramble 
and gorse bushes stretched nearly down to the sea edge; these | ea 
have been swept away, and the hillside is now a network of 
railroads; and at the top stand a number of black furnaces 
continually belching forth smoke and flame. Up the valley, too, — 
a transformation scene has taken place; the valley, once beautiful, 
is now filled with mines, engine shops, pit props, and smoke. 
Sights and sounds are seen and heard day and night, pleasant 
no doubt from a financial point of view, but not by any means © 
pleasant to the delicate senses of the migrants wishing to land — 
there. 
Again, a little ee up the valley the calcining kilns con- 
nected with the rerton Mines are pouring out sulphurous 
fumes which have ‘Bieced havoc with the vegetation in ei 
adjoining: woo 
e whole of the timber in what is called the West Wood was 
so much injured by the smoke that it had to be cut down. This 
wild, precipitous gorge has, however, again become filled with — 
young trees matted together with tangled undergrowth, and the ~ 
stream at the bottom, which had become sadly polluted with 
sewerage, is pane comparatively clear, and the home of ee ; 
a inate trout. 
ae 
_ Naturalist, 
